Republican super PAC attacking Andy Kim for Nancy Pelosi vote

David Levinsky @davidlevinsky

Friday

Jan 4, 2019 at 5:35 PMJan 4, 2019 at 5:35 PM

The Congressional Leadership Fund, a group linked to Republican leadership of the House, announced it was launching digital ads in Kim’s district and five others represented by freshman Democrats who voted in support of Pelosi for speaker after speaking against her return to the top leadership post during last year’s campaign.

Democratic Congressman Andy Kim has been in office exactly one day and already he’s under attack from a Republican super PAC due to his floor vote to help elect Nancy Pelosi as House speaker.

The Congressional Leadership Fund, a group linked to Republican leadership of the House, announced it was launching digital ads in Kim’s district and five others represented by freshman Democrats who voted in support of Pelosi for speaker after speaking against her return to the top leadership post during last year’s campaign. Pelosi was elected with 220 votes, two more than the minimum required.

“With his very first vote in Congress Andy Kim caved to the party bosses and fell right in line voting to support Nancy Pelosi for speaker,” the narrator in the Kim ad says. “It takes most politicians years to sell out, but Andy Kim broke his bond with voters on the very first day.”

The ad referenced a Kim quote in a June story by the political news website New Jersey Globe where Kim called for new leadership.

“When I worked in Afghanistan, no one asked me if I was a Democrat or Republican, we just focused on serving the American people,’ Kim told the website. "As I’m now working to help my community here in New Jersey, it’s time we have new leadership on both sides of the aisle in Washington to get the job done."

The freshman Democrat was also one of 32 Democrats who voted against Pelosi’s nomination during a Democratic caucus meeting held in late November. At the time, Kim said he decided not to support her nomination because he didn’t believe it was best for all of the people of Burlington and Ocean counties and that he would urge leaders to “find ways to lift more voices.”

Kim reversed his position Thursday afternoon when he voted in support of Pelosi’s election. Afterwards, he said he believed he remained true to his promise that he would make decisions and vote based on the best interest of his constituents. He did not specify how Pelosi’s return would benefit the district, but said feedback he received from district’s residents was that they wanted to see government function and for the ongoing partial shutdown to end.

“As I’ve talked to people across the district, the feedback I heard was that we need to move forward and get the government back open,” he said shortly after taking his oath of office on the House floor.

Kim, a former national security advisor in Barack Obama’s White House, also said he was still actively seeking a spot on the House Armed Services Committee, an assignment he says could best make use of his national security experience and position him to advocate for Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.

He did not say his vote for Pelosi was quid pro quo for a seat on Armed Services, but several other freshman Democrats are believed to be seeking assignment to the committee, including fellow New Jersey Democrat Mikie Sherrill of the 11th District.

Sherrill voted against Pelosi during Thursday’s floor vote, as did another New Jersey Democrat, Rep. Jeff Van Drew, of the 2nd District.

Kim is no stranger to the Congressional Leadership Fund’s attack ads.

The super PAC spent more than $3.3 million on advertising and other campaign activities opposing Kim during the Democrat’s 2018 challenge against the district’s two-term Republican incumbent, Tom MacArthur. The PAC spent another $211,500 on campaign activities in support of MacArthur’s re-election, according to the website, OpenSecrets.org, which tracks independent expenditures.

Kim won the seat from MacArthur by a less than 4,000-vote margin in a race that featured a combined $11 million in expenditures by the two campaigns, the most of all 12 House races in New Jersey.

Their closely-watched race also drew more than $11.4 million in outside spending by super PACs and other groups making independent expenditures, according to ProPublica’s tracking. That amount was the most of any congressional race in New Jersey and placed the total spending above $22 million.

Kim made campaign finance reform a major part of his campaign and has promised to push for legislation on the issue. He also refused to accept campaign contributions from corporate PACs, although his opponents criticized him for accepting money from Pelosi and other Democratic lawmakers and PACs that received large sums from corporate sources.

On Friday, House Democrats unveiled their first bill of the new Congress, H.R.1, also known as the For the People Act. The legislation contains several campaign finance reforms, including a requirement that 501(c)(4) nonprofits disclose the identity of donors who contribute more than $10,000. It would also ban corporations from contributing to political campaigns if they are substantially owned or controlled by foreigners. It also seeks to expand public financing for elections and create a database for the disclosure of digital ad buys over $500.

Kim has also promised to hold a public town halls in the district each month. He has not yet announced a date and location for January’s inaugural town hall, but he did announce he would hold a “community office hours” event Sunday at the Kennedy Center in Willingboro in order to speak to constituents. The event is scheduled to run from 1 to 3:30 p.m.

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